It's sad to tell but it can happen that a person's life, or even the events of a nation, have no other purpose than to provide a negative example that serves as a warning to others: this is what will happen if you do same error. Italy in fact is a cautionary tale that should be studied in all international universities to understand how even democracies with a good Constitution may be undermined and become something else that is no longer democracy.
Certainly all the democratic states have obvious limitations and problems in the real "government of the people." But Italy is a particularly serious case. A man with an enormous power over the media is allowed to stand for elections, something that in other democratic countries would never be allowed, and here's what happens: the man accumulates enormous power based on a cult of personality, and the normal counter-measure of democracy, those who governs badly lose the elections, stops working.
A man uses state institutions to enrich his businesses and to enact laws that can save him from the trials in which he stand accused of corruption. This man attacks with impunity the judiciary accusing judges of persecuting him, instead of disappearing from the political scene after the first notice of crime like any other politician in the world. This man is still the leader of one of the major Italian parties although there are members of his party and even his personal friends suspected of collusion with the Mafia, despite his government made laws that end up favoring the mafias, despite the amazing promises from the election campaign that he never keeps.
This man organizes parties at his villas with the money of the state, in the company of adoring young girls, and even nominates them to run for office. This man eliminates from the electoral law the possibility of indicating the names, so he can nominate only candidates of proven loyalty. This man can do all this because in addition to use his televisions to make political propaganda when is in the government he does the same with public television, which should represent all citizens and not just those of a political party.
The truth, plain and obvious, that he is a man who uses politics for private interest, disappear like magic, because in the Italian television is reversed. The fictional story of Berlusconi, that he would be persecuted by the judiciary and the opposition, completely replaces truth in the minds of many citizens, who then continue to vote for him. This is why Italy should now be studied in universities all over the world: here's what can happen in a democracy if it violates the sacred principle of separation of powers and allows a man who has media power to acquire the political one, both executive and legislative. Today the man who occupied the country wants to submit to his will even the judiciary, and he can easily do that through a consensus built from 16 years of propaganda in his favor, and thanks to the cowardly acquiescence of much of the opposition. This is demonstrated by the recently approved short trial rules, because the maximum duration of six years does not provide to streamline justice, but only to save Berlusconi from his legal troubles.
Maybe it's too late for Italy, there is no more hope. It's sad but all this, which has no positive meaning for us, could at least serve as a warning to the other democracies of the world.
Francesco Defferrari
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Comments